pakdoktergolfblog: Eidul-Fitri.....'Selamat Hari Raya'...

Today is the 'Eid' -the day Muslims celebrate the end of the month-long daily obligatory fasting from dawn to dusk.

Eidul-Fitri has always been a day of family reunion. But this year, just like for the past 3 or 4 years, pakdokter and partner will celebrate this day just by ourselves. Our children are both away and overseas. Rastam is still in Tokyo and Raena has just been informed by her university in Edinburgh that she has passed her Masters Degree in Economics.

Pakdokter tried to recollect what it was like to celebrate this 'Hari Raya' when pakdokter was growing up. Surprisingly pakdokter could not recollect very much!

Pakdokter was trained to fast from a very young age. Maybe from as young as 6 years old. Pakdokter remembers that it was quite an ordeal. Somehow pakdokter managed to fast the whole day and would look forward to the 'feast' of the 'breaking of fast' which pakdokter can remember would normally be made up of dishes often not quite the same but more lavish than what the family would get for dinner during the other months.

At least by a week before the 'Eid', pakdokter's mother would have already started baking cookies and cakes late into the nights, in preparation for the big day. And on the last day of the Ramadan, once the day of the Eid was confirmed and announced upon the 'sighting of the new moon', pakdokter's mother and sisters would be busy the whole night cooking up the 'rendangs' and the 'ketupats'. Pakdokter would stay up and sleep very little to help out in the kitchen in anticipation of the 'Raya'.

Somehow despite the long night, everybody would wake up early the next morning. After the morning bath and changing into the new 'baju Melayu' - having the morning breakfast of 'ketupat and rendang' was almost like a religious obligation! And, of course, the array of cookies in small glass jars. Come to think of it.....we were already very much into the spirits of 1Malaysia even then in the 60's......pakdokter remembers we were already serving 'murukus' and 'kuih kapiks' on the table......

Pakdokter's father would drive pakdokter to the mosque for the 'Raya' prayer - sometimes at the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur and sometimes at the ?Sultan Salahuddin Alam Shah Mosque at the PJ Old Town Kawasan Melayu. Somehow pakdokter cannot remember if we ever did the 'Raya' prayer at the Masjid Jame' in downtown Kuala Lumpur, although pakdokter is quite sure that we did go there together for the Friday prayers...

'Duit Raya' those days would probably be 20 cents at the most. But it was still a 'big treat'. And these coins would go into the small 'Milo' tin which was converted into a coin-box. We were trained and encouraged to be thrifty and to safe from very young.....

We would be at home most of the day as streams of friends and neigbours would pay us a visit. We would only go out and visit our relatives or friends from the second day onwards....

However pakdokter did not have many 'Rayas' with pakdokter's parents. Pakdokter's mother died when pakdokter was in the early years of boarding school and pakdokter's father died just weeks after pakdokter graduated from medical school.

This 'Raya' pakdokter looked through the family's collection of photographs with nostalgia of the old days. There were not that many pictures of the family during the 'Rayas'. Certainly not of the 'Rayas' with pakdokter's parents.

What pakdokter could find were only pictures of pakdokter's own family with pakdokter's parents-in-law, who have also passed on 10 years or so ago.......

pakdokter's 'young' family in the '80's...